INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines?Jeson Patrombon pulled the rug from under fifth seed Ben McLachlan of New Zealand, 6-3, 6-2, Wednesday to reach the third round of the 15th Sarawak Chief Minister?s Cup-ITF World Junior tennis championships in Kuching, Malaysia.

Patrombon, who boosted his stock by making it to the semifinals of another Grade 1 event in Thailand last week, advanced against 12th seed Wang Chuhan of China, who ousted India?s Sai Kartik Nakireddi, 7-6 (6), 6-4.

Fellow Filipino junior hotshot Francis Casey Alcantara, seeded fourth, already made the third round early Wednesday after a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Adam Lee also of New Zealand.

The 2009 Australian Open doubles junior champ will next take on American Dane Webb, the 14th seed who bundled out Mohd Assri Merzuki of Malaysia, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.

Though McLachlan was more experienced and is ranked 40th in the world, his topspin forehand failed to carry him past the 209th-ranked Patrombon.

?My instruction to Jeson was to take the ball early and on the rise to give his opponent very little time to prepare for the next shot,? said coach Manny Tecson via e-mail.

?If he slices the ball low, I told Jeson to hit it aggressively with heavy topspin to put more pressure on McLachlan.?

In the doubles, Patrombon partnered with German Matthias Wunner to beat Malaysia?s Abdul Razak and Romania?s Mihalta Daniel Damian, 6-3, 6-1. Alcantara and Korean Jeong Suk-Young were seeded into the third round. Marc Anthony Reyes